


Red Room, King Crimson

by MiniNephthys



Category: Deadly Premonition | Red Seeds Profile, ジョジョの奇妙な冒険 | JoJo no Kimyou na Bouken | JoJo's Bizarre Adventure
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-05-14
Updated: 2014-06-05
Packaged: 2018-01-24 18:00:11
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,145
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1614176
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MiniNephthys/pseuds/MiniNephthys
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Doppio makes a friend in his own head.  Probably in his head.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Red Room

**Author's Note:**

> This is for Conor, who made me watch the entire LP just for this crossover. Thank you, Conor.

It had been blackouts, at first, just regular blackouts. But gradually, when Doppio’s consciousness left his body, it started to ‘go’ somewhere else instead.

A tiny room with a carpet of red leaves. Dark red trees surrounding him, save for a single door, surrounded by black smoke.

Doppio never opens that door. Why should he? It clearly doesn’t lead to anywhere real, since this has to be a hallucination of some kind. And he’s… afraid.

His blackouts aren’t very long, anyway. If he waits around, he’ll return to his body. He tries not to think about the red room when he’s in the normal world again.

* * *

It’s during an incredibly long blackout that fear gives way to boredom. Doppio has been staring at that door for what feels like hours, and he decides it’s time that he finds out what’s on the other side.

After wiping leaves off his pants, he grab a hold of the doorknob and turns. The room on the other side looks like more of the same, red leaves, red trees, with one exception: when he passes through the doorway, he sees that there’s a man in a suit sitting in a chair, one of two.

“Hello?” says Doppio, coming to a stop in front of him. “What are you doing in my hallucination?”

The man holds up a finger. “Are you hallucinating? It’s not for me to decide, but you should try to think things through before you jump to conclusions.”

That’s good advice, except Doppio knows for certain that he’s unconscious. Still, he can’t exactly argue with that. “Do you have a name?”

“Francis York Morgan,” he says. “Please, call me York. That’s what everyone calls me.”

Doppio isn’t sure there is an ‘everyone’, if this exists within his own head. But, still. “I’m Doppio.”

“Why don’t you have a seat? It looks like you’re going to be here for a while longer, so we should get to know each other. Personally, I like to break the ice by talking about movies, but I’m not familiar with most Italian films…” York taps on his tie. “Did you see the 1988 film, directed by Giuseppe Tornatore, Cinema Paradiso? You’d know it as Nuovo Cinema Paradiso. Zach and I could never figure out why they had to drop the first word from the international release.”

“I watch a lot of American films, actually, when I have time.” Doppio watches York light up, and feels a little more at ease.

* * *

Sometimes Doppio’s thoughts are barred from Diavolo.

When Diavolo is in control of their shared body, Doppio isn’t thinking at all. There’s nothing, empty space, radio silence. Diavolo’s used to not hearing him then.

When Doppio is control, and Diavolo is monitoring his thoughts for anything useful or dangerous… occasionally he gets that same radio silence, that complete lack of thoughts to read, and it worries him. No human being spends a minute of their life thinking about nothing. It’s impossible.

Most of Doppio’s thoughts are plainly obvious, so what is it that he’s managed to keep hidden? How could he hide his thoughts without knowing that there’s someone to hide them from? Diavolo knows he hasn’t been detected… has he?

* * *

York talks when Doppio wants him to talk and listens when Doppio wants him to listen.

When he talks, he talks about movies, or FBI cases, or himself. Doppio still isn’t sure that he really exists, but his stories at least are interesting. There’s one figure in them, a Zach that he’s been told was York’s best friend and is still out there somewhere in the real world, that catches Doppio’s interest, though they’re populated by other figures as well. (A woman who wanders around town with a warm pot she thinks is sentient? Please, Doppio wasn’t born yesterday.)

When he listens to Doppio talk, Doppio rambles on about the boss more than he talks about himself. York lets Doppio steer the conversation, showing more interest than anyone’s had in what Doppio has to say than anyone’s shown in ages. Even the boss.

York’s a little strange, even barring the circumstances he shows up in. He memorizes movies too much to be healthy, talks about coffee and cigarette premonitions, and isn’t the kind of person Doppio would normally hang out with.

Doppio wouldn’t normally hang out with anyone. He’s too busy with work. This… this is nice.

* * *

There’s a large government scandal on the news shortly before Doppio meets him.

Diavolo pays it little attention. The government isn’t the real power in Italy. It’s of no concern to him if other countries send agents over to deal with it, as long as they don’t bother him.

When Doppio cannot stop staring at the man sitting next to him for coffee and his thoughts are once again completely blocked to Diavolo, that is of much more concern. Diavolo considers taking control and decides to put it off and let Doppio reveal what’s going on.

The man notices his gaping. “Can I help you?” he asks, not even in a sarcastic way. As if he genuinely wanted to help people.

“Sorry, you… reminded me of someone I know.” Doppio’s thoughts are still impenetrable to Diavolo. Who could he know that Diavolo isn’t aware of? “Do you know a York?”

“Really well, actually. How is he doing?”

“Oh, he’s fine. I think he’s fine, he said he’s not stuck in that red room when I asked him about it.”

What the hell are they talking about?

“That’s good to hear.” The man smiles slightly and pulls out a business card. “Agent Francis Zach Morgan. Please, call me Zach. It’s what everyone calls me.”

“I’m Doppio-” Doppio holds a hand to his head. “Sorry, headache… I’m going to have to step outside for a second to get some air.”

“I’m done here anyway, I’ll see you out.” Zach rises from his chair and offers Doppio his shoulder, which Doppio leans on.

Good. Follow him to where there are less witnesses. Let him interrogate you in private.

The bar they’ve chosen is excellent in quality but expensive in a neighborhood that usually can’t afford expensive things, which means not many people are around. Doppio makes it out of the line of sight of any windows before Diavolo turns and grabs Zach by the neck to drag him into an alley.

Zach shakes him off and takes a step back. “I’m feeling suddenly nostalgic here.”

“What have you been doing with my Doppio?” Diavolo growls.

“Nothing, I just met him today. If you want to ask York about it, I’m sorry, but I can’t talk to him directly anymore.” Zach reaches for something behind his back.

Diavolo calls King Crimson, ready to dodge a bullet, but falters when what Zach pulls out is a guitar. Why would he pull out a guitar-?

Whack.

Oh. That’s why.

* * *

“I really should have given that guitar back to Keith, but it’s so useful, I just couldn’t do it,” says York, shaking his head. “One of these days maybe Zach will do it for me.”

Doppio raises an eyebrow. “I’d say that’s the strangest weapon I’ve heard of, but Stands are weird. There’s probably a guitar Stand somewhere out there anyway.”


	2. Leaves

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Fronting, and how to anger your boss by refusing to do it.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So apparently this is not a oneshot. But I wouldn't expect it to have many updates either, it's just 'when they come to me'.

Doppio doesn’t get a lot of warning when he’s about to leave the red room and wake back up. The time spent in there doesn’t seem to correspond at all to how time passes outside, though it’s hard to tell by the wildly spinning clocks. Often he’ll only have time to give York a hello and start a conversation before being interrupted and abruptly sent back out.

He doesn’t have control over when he comes in and goes out, it’s just something that happens to him.

Today is not a good day. Today is actually terrible. The mission went badly and the boss was angry with him, he was hassled by strangers and snapped at every one of them on the way home, and when he slipped into unconsciousness inside his apartment it came as a relief.

Doppio stomps on leaves as he crosses the room to the seat beside York. “I don’t want to go back out today.”

York raises a hand in greeting. “So don’t go back out this time.”

Doppio pauses, before saying, “It’s not my choice. ...Right? I don’t know how to stop it.”

“If you’re convinced you can’t stop it then you won’t be able to. If you think you can, you still might not be able to, but at least then you’ll have a chance. Remember, ‘you get what you settle for’,” says York.

“You’re quoting something,” says Doppio. “No, don’t tell me, I don’t care right now. You really think I can just hide here forever because I had a bad day?”

“Not forever,” says York. “But as long as you need to take to recover.”

“...I could try.”

* * *

From Diavolo’s perspective, fronting is a simple matter.

When he wants to be in charge, he is. It takes a few seconds to switch, which Doppio experiences as a headache and then unconsciousness. When Diavolo is done, the switch back is nearly instantaneous.

It always works like this. There are never any problems, which is why when Diavolo finishes up his business and tries to switch back, it takes him a few moments to realize that Doppio isn’t responding and that Diavolo is still in control.

This has never happened to him before. He isn’t sure what went wrong, and though he tries a few more times to put Doppio in front again, Doppio isn’t taking control.

Did he break him somehow? He’s sure Doppio is still there, just not answering. Or did Doppio gain the willpower to fight against him… but he doesn’t even know Diavolo exists in his body, that would be impossible.

Damn it to hell. Diavolo has no idea what’s going on and he hates feeling in the dark about anything.

A grumbling in his stomach reminds him that his body is hungry. A quick inspection of the fridge reminds him that Doppio was planning on going grocery shopping today.

Diavolo weighs the costs of going grocery shopping himself versus having to live off cheese sandwiches until this gets sorted out. He sighs, tries and fails one last time to get Doppio to front again, and starts for the supermarket.

* * *

“I once made it a personal mission to watch every movie given a Golden Turkey Award. I started with The Swarm. Most disaster movies are a little cheesy by nature, so a movie about killer bees-”

“York,” Doppio interrupts. It’s been soothing to listen to York talk about movies and cases, and he feels much better than he did when he came into the red room, but… “Do you know what time it is outside?”

York doesn’t even glance at the clock. It’s spinning too wildly to read anyway. “Since you came in, it’s been about twenty-four hours.”

“Twenty-four-” Doppio jumps from his seat. “I can’t just stay here, I have to go back! What if the boss needs me and I’m still-”

He doesn’t finish the sentence, he could already feel consciousness return to him the moment he stood up. The red room fades away and he comes to in front of his apartment door.

A phone rings, insistently, more loud and shrill than any Doppio has heard. He covers his ears but the ringing penetrates just as clearly, and it takes a moment for him to unlock the door and grab his phone.

“Hello, it’s Dop-?”

“What have you been doing.” The boss has never sounded so angry with him, and Doppio quivers. He knew that hiding was a bad idea, even if it had sounded therapeutic at the time.

“I’m sorry, boss, I was blacked out for a while- I didn’t mean to miss-”

Diavolo growls, and Doppio bites his tongue. “Do not ignore me again. There will be consequences in the future. Understood?”

“U-understood.”

Doppio doesn’t think he can explain exactly what was going on, and he doesn’t want to. If there is anything that is his in his life, surely it’s his own mind. Maybe not his body, that belongs to the boss if he wants to use it, but Doppio’s mind is his own, and the room is his haven.

...For as long as he can keep it that way.

Anyway, it’s not like he could share it with the boss. He’d never believe him.

* * *

Doppio learning how to refuse to front is bad enough. Doppio learning how to front unexpectedly while Diavolo is in control and Doppio should be unconscious?

Diavolo wants to bang his head against the wall in frustration, but he doesn’t want to take control again to do it and risk being stuck that way. Instead he swears, confident at least that Doppio hasn’t learned how to overhear him. Yet.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The movie York first quoted was "Thelma & Louise".


End file.
